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Women switch on to online gaming

AM - Saturday, 13 September , 2008 08:18:00

Reporter: Ashley Hall

ELIZABETH JACKSON: In some countries, people now spend more leisure time playing online computer games than watching television.

The popularity of such games is growing in Australia too. And increasingly it's women in their 30s who are playing online games.

Advertisers are slowly realising that represents a huge untapped market.

Ashley Hall reports.

ASHLEY HALL: It's a world of make believe that stretches far beyond the imagination of many people.

But with an estimated 16-million subscribers worldwide, The World of Warcraft is the biggest of what's known as a massively multiplayer online role playing game.

Players take control of a character, allowing them to explore the landscape, fight monsters, and embark on quests.

The Melbourne IT worker, Garth Honey, has been playing the game over the past three years.

GARTH HONEY: A number of my friends started playing a game called World of Warcraft. And I originally purchased it just to play with them and, you know, be a little bit more sociable.

It's almost like a replacement for, you know, real life interactions in some way.

ASHLEY HALL: And it's certainly not just a hobby for children. Garth Honey is aged in his 30s.

GARTH HONEY: Older people have, you know, an expendable income, that they can spend on these games. Whereas younger people, you know, they're often limited by their jobs or their family situation.

ASHLEY HALL: And there's a growing band of women playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games too.

A senior lecturer from RMIT's School of Business Information Technology, John Lenarcic, says they're drawn in by the games' simple storytelling.

JOHN LENARCIC: I like to think that a lot of computer games are actually avenues to social networking. And it enables people to actually interact with the game and also with other players, forming communities. So what we're seeing is a computer game culture is actually emerging.

ASHLEY HALL: Those communities are particularly strong in places like South Korea, where the amount of time the population spends playing online games now surpasses the amount of time spent watching television.

And John Lenarcic is telling businesses they'll have to change the way they advertise if they're to reach that community.

ASHLEY HALL: But there are risks for the would-be advertiser.

JOHN LENARCIC: The situation is actually very similar to television shows say for example in the United States right, where the content may be spurious to some members of the community.

For example, from right wing factions, for example; and they may put pressure on advertisers, perhaps to advertise on these programs, to actually withdraw advertising from these shows.

ASHLEY HALL: John Lenarcic says the moral panic that's been generated by some of the more violent games is similar to the outrage expressed at early comic books.

JOHN LENARCIC: For example in the 1950s when people thought because of the sexual and violent content of most books at the time they would corrupt the young, when in actual fact, the average age of the comic book reader in the 1950s was in their 30s, surprise surprise, just like computer games nowadays.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: John Lenarcic, a senior lecturer from RMIT's School of Business Information Technology, with Ashley Hall.